When Goldman Sachs economist Jim O’Neill coined the acronymBRIC to describe collectively Brazil, Russia, India and China,the world mainly regarded it as one of the easy-come, easy-go termsin economics. A decade later, O’Neill’s concept is not forgotten. Itis successfully playing an historic role in representing the shift inglobal economic power away from developed economies toward thedeveloping world. With BRIC’s admission of South Africa, the biggesteconomy on the African continent, it has grown into BRICS andgained new economic and geopolitical significance.